Winter Sunrise on Lake Michigan

The Sturgeon Bay North Pierhead Light stands resilient against the frozen shore, its red form a beacon of both warning and guidance. Built to endure the brutal winters of Lake Michigan, it has withstood decades of ice, wind, and waves, watching over ships as they navigate the treacherous waters leading into the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal. The pier itself juts out into the icy expanse, lined with a catwalk once used by lighthouse keepers in the days before automation. Before modern technology took over, these narrow walkways were vital lifelines, allowing keepers to reach the light during fierce storms when the pier below was battered by waves or buried under feet of snow and ice. Walking that suspended path in the dead of winter, bracing against howling winds, was an act of necessity and courage—ensuring the beacon remained lit for sailors fighting their own battles beyond the breakwater.

Now, as dawn breaks, the John Boland makes its way toward the canal, a steel giant cutting through the fractured ice. A Great Lakes freighter built for endurance, it has spent months on the open water, carrying limestone, coal, and iron ore through some of the most unpredictable conditions in North America. But even ships built for these waters must rest, and this journey is not one of commerce but necessity. The Boland is bound for Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, where it will undergo winter layup—a ritual as old as Great Lakes shipping itself. The months of ice and wind take their toll on even the strongest hulls, and Bay Ship, nestled in the heart of Sturgeon Bay, is where vessels like the Boland are repaired, repainted, and reinforced for the season ahead. Within days, the harbor will be filled with other freighters, their massive forms docked side by side, each awaiting the careful hands of shipbuilders who know these waters as well as the sailors who brave them.

To sail the Great Lakes in winter is to court danger at every turn. Though this morning’s waters seem calm, the season is defined by its unpredictability—gales that can rise without warning, ice floes that shift and trap ships, and temperatures that turn steel brittle. History is littered with the names of those who didn’t make it—the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Rouse Simmons, the Henry Steinbrenner—each a ghostly reminder of what lies beneath the waves. But the Boland presses on, its engines pushing through the ice, past the steadfast light that has guided so many before it.

This is Sturgeon Bay in winter—where industry and survival intertwine, where ships find refuge after months on the water, and where the North Pierhead Light still stands against the cold, its purpose unchanged even as time moves forward. The frozen lake, the waiting shipyard, the steel giant moving through the dawn—all are chapters in the ongoing story of a place where the past and present are written on the water itself.

All prints are of museum quality and printed in The USA. Canvas Prints are wrapped around a hardwood frame to prevent long-term wrapping and utilize a 0.75" thick wrap. Metal Prints are glossy, vibrant, and of course are ready to hang.  These prints make a statement and bring Door County home to your wall.